The Big DumpTruck

We have a lot of broken phones in our family. How weird is it that right now we are looking to replace 4 phones? My mom's phone (which is on my t-mobile account, so it counts as mine) has been funky for months. I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but in Vermont last month, it would stop functioning. None of the buttons would do anything, including the on-off button. This made it really hard to use, by the way. So we got a replacement for that one - it arrived yesterday, I charged it overnight, and swapped the sim for my parents this morning and sent them on their way with a new phone.

Then there's Mr. Dump's Blackberry, which is flaking out big time. It doesn't ring. Not just the sound, but it doesn't receive calls properly. So if you call him, he doesn't know until a little while later when it says he missed a call or three. This is no good when you're a working parent and the school has your cell phone number for contact, y'know? Or if you are trying to use it as, well, a phone. Oh, the keypad isn't working either, so for a while, the only way he could call someone was if they were already entered in his addressbook. Fun! So he's been trying for a week now to get Cingular to fix it, or sell him a new phone, or whatever, but they wouldn't/couldn't. Last night he got someone who told him he was "unsupported," as in, we didn't sell you that equipment, AT&T did, so we're not going to do anything for you. You have to drop your service (read: plan) entirely and start up as a new customer with Cingular.

What? Who DOES that? You buy out a company, you take on their customers and their customer's needs. PERIOD. Cingular, you SUCK.

So he made the bold switch to T-Mobile, and he's getting a SideKick. I must have finally worn him down.

Okay, last two phones are the ones in the house on the land line. One of them doesn't hold a charge. The other one was making these really awful screechy noises the other night. (I think it was the other one, because we had to switch them to take care of the no-charge issue with the downstairs one. And then the screeching was downstairs. I never liked these phones, by the way, so fine. Good riddance. I mean, you can't pick up both at the same time. As in, I answer upstairs and it's for Mr. Dump, I can't just yell down and have him pick up. I have to actually transfer the call to him. Stupid.

So those are the 4 broken phones. 1 is replaced, 1 is ordered, and the other two are on the weekend to-do list. And who says my life isn't exciting?